Configuring platforms

Matthew and Anita are in a WhatsApp group with their cousins who live in New York. Throughout the day, they chat, share photos, memes, and links to videos and music. Matthew found that his phone kept beeping with notifications while he was at work, so he muted them, though he would comment at other times so as not to seem like he is ignoring his cousins.

Meanwhile Anita was planning a party for her grandparents with the cousins in New York and others living nearby, for which she used Skype meetings. Often these started out as planning logistics, decorations, the cake, and other party matters, but ended with the cousins laughing and telling stories just as if they were together. Matthew was fairly quiet in the Skype sessions, but would simultaneously chat with his cousin in New York over WhatsApp, as they just couldn’t hear each other otherwise. Each has their own platform preferences, but it’s always for combinations of platforms, not just for one in isolation. Anita enjoys the more direct and immediate communication of WhatsApp as well as these big group meetings on Skype. Matthew likes to be present in the bigger groups that form around ‘liking' content on Facebook, but he also enjoys a conversation with one person only, for example on WhatsApp.